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Can an Ad Tier Solve Apple TV+?

As Tim Cook touts “double-digit” streaming growth, whatever that means, Hollywood’s most price-insensitive player is facing growing pressure to actually make money from its unprofitable service. Turning on the ad revenue spigot is probably inevitable.

Both Eddy Cue and Tim Cook have reassured the town of their commitment to the streamer, which by at least some metrics is riding high, with 81 Emmy nominations and a few back-to-back hits.
Julia Alexander
July 31, 2025

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In its six-ish years of existence, Apple TV+ has mostly operated as a sort of vanity project, largely immune to such quotidian concerns as profit, revenue, and return on investment. Apple, after all, is currently the third-most-valuable company in the world, today revealing $94 billion in third-quarter revenue, up 10 percent year over year and a record for the quarter. The Services division, which houses Apple TV+, was responsible for around 30 percent of the company’s total revenue. This financial advantage is what executives from Disney’s Bob Iger to Netflix’s Ted Sarandos are referring to when they say that competitors like Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video are operating under completely different constraints.